Review: The Brightest Stars, Anna Todd
The Brightest Stars, a beautiful and gripping novel from New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author Anna Todd, is available NOW!
International bestselling author Anna Todd returns with a gripping novel about a young woman's journey towards love, and the obstacles life throws up at every turn.
Karina knows the harsh realities of military life. And like anyone who has grown up around an army base, she knows the background noise that follows a soldier home from war. That's why she's forging her own quiet life in her own little house. But she hasn't turned her back on her family. She's the glue that holds them together--when her father is deployed, when her brother, Austin, has another brush with the law.
Karina knows that she has to look after herself, that she can't always fix what's broken. But when Austin's behavior worsens and her father's reactions grow more extreme, Karina feels her own edges beginning to fray. That's when she meets him--a closed book she's desperate to open.
At just twenty, Kael is a handsome, brooding soldier struggling with the aftermath of two tours in Afghanistan. He's emotionally damaged and closed off. Quiet doesn't begin to describe him. But as Karina gets used to his stable presence, she finds it hard to ignore the way he makes her feel. In their time together, she finds the stillness she has always wanted and never found. She lets down her guard. And she lets herself fill in the blanks about this mysterious man.
But illusions quickly made are quickly shattered. That's when Karina has to find her own courage--to untangle the truth from the lies, and decide what she's going to do about it.
A riveting story about love and lies, THE BRIGHTEST STARS will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.
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REVIEW:
The way this book started in the present and then went back to when Karina and Kael first met, I knew it was going to hurt, and it freaking did.. keep in my mind that this is only part 1 of 3. So I know I'm gonna be a mess with each book that comes out.
Karina is an army brat and she always promised herself that she would never put herself through that in a relationship... that is until Kael shows up at her work and then inside her home. Even though Kael is a quite guy and getting words out of him is like pulling teeth, sparks fly between him and Karina immediately. Kael is suddenly everywhere Karina is, he goes to her work for massages, is friends with her roommate and stays over while he has no place to stay, knows her twin's friends and shows up at his party... he is everywhere and she loves it. They develop this deep connection in a few weeks that eventually becomes more but Kael has been hiding stuff and when Karina gets a whiff of it and finds out Kael and her father knew each other before the Tuesday family dinner, she thinks she's been played.
Karina finds herself in a nightmare, with the awful relationship she has with her dad, the mess with her twin brother Austin and now the man she was falling in love with has been hiding major secrets. But it only gets worse from there, what she fears the most and always thought wouldn't happen.. happens.
I was left reeling once I reached the end of this book. Shook to the core just like Karina once she found out the final blow to her already beaten up heart. I cannot wait to see what her reaction will be, but I know it won't be pretty. I'm also super curious about what really happened with Kael and Karina's father, I cannot wait to learn the truth. And in regards to Austin, I honestly don't get the guy. He is a complete mess, so lost. I hope he figures life out, because he has been spiraling out of control and if something doesn't change, it's going to be bad. I feel for Karina, she cares so much for him and not being able to do anything kills her. I hope she understands where he is coming from once she accepts the truth.
Anna Todd always writes complex characters, ones that frustrate you like no other. After Hardin, I cannot wait to see who these characters will become. The Brightest Stars just might be my favorite book she's written (keeping in mind that I still haven't read The Spring Girls) and I cannot wait to get more of these two and find out all the secrets and how they'll work everything out with they way we were all left hanging.
Excerpt:
Elodie sat down on the couch and tucked her feet under her. Her petite body was changing, her belly starting to swell. I wondered where the baby would sleep in my little house. Elodie’s favorite American show at the moment was Scandal. She was binge-watching it for the first time.
“What season are you on now?” I asked her.
“Two,” she said softly.
She was being so quiet. I pulled my shoes off and it wasn’t until I dropped one on the floor and something moved in my peripheral vision that I realized another person was in my house.
A noise, a little like a shriek, flew from my mouth when I saw him. He was staring at me, the one-syllable client from earlier. He was sitting in my chair—the dark pink, used-to-be-red one that my nana gave me before we moved to Georgia.
“Um, hey?” I said when my heart stopped doing little flips from the aftershock of surprise. How did I not see a whole human in my living room? I had been feeling spacey a lot the last few weeks, but that day was another level.
“How was work?” Elodie asked, looking at the TV while her fingers picked at the fabric on her pants, and then back to me.
“Good …”
I stared at this Kael guy and he stared back at me. When I would recall this later, the first time he was inside my little white house, the memory would change from a burning pain to pure bliss and back—again and again and again. But when it happened in real life, it happened fast. Before he was anything to me—before he was everything—he was just a quiet stranger with a blank face and distant eyes. There was something indomitable about him, something so closed, that I couldn’t even begin to make up a life for him. He hated peppermint oil and hadn’t wanted me to touch his leg—those were the only clues I had to who he was.
Win a Day With Anna!
Anna is celebrating the special edition paperback of THE BRIGHTEST STARS sold exclusively at Target Stores with a Golden Ticket Sweepstakes!
Two (2) Winners will each receive:
Three (3) days and two (2) nights hotel accommodations in Los Angeles, CA
One (1) round trip ticket to Los Angeles, CA for Winner and one (1) guest.
Ground transportation to and from the airport and hotel in Los Angeles, CA.
A fun-filled activity with Anna Todd
One (1) copy of each of the After book series, The Brightest Stars and Nothing More/Nothing Less signed by Anna Todd
For more information on how to enter, visit: http://www.annatodd.com/contest-rules/
About Anna:
Anna Todd is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of the After series. An avid reader, Anna began writing stories on her phone on Wattpad, the reading and writing multi platform for original stories, with After becoming the most read series on the platform with over 1.5 billion reads. The print edition published in 2014. AFTER has been published in over 30 languages, with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide, and is a #1 bestseller in Italy, Germany, France and Spain.
The film adaptation of AFTER, which Anna is co-producing, is set to be released in early 2019. Anna and her husband currently live in Los Angeles.
Find her at AnnaTodd.com, on Twitter at @imaginator1d, on Instagram at @imaginator1d, and on Wattpad as Imaginator1D.
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